Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

pcworld.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 154 posts

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#21

Post by zdw »

crazygringo wrote: post #6

I'm genuinely curious... are there viruses that spread in OSX? Not trojans or whatnot that require users to click on files they shouldn't, but rather actual viruses that make use of vulnerabilities in OSX to spread from computer to computer, either via Internet or thumb drives or something? In other words, if I always follow responsible practices (never opening files from untrusted sources), has there been any threat…

I'm not aware of any "traditional viruses" as you describe.

I've cleaned IRC bots off of people's OS X installations. They had SSH turned on, with username/pw combos like "bob"/"bob", and public IP addresses.

But you really have to intentionally make multiple poor security choices for something like this happen.

There are also quite a few remote code execution attacks against OS X - you can find details of these in Apple's security bulletin list:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1222

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#22

Post by demallien »

allaun1 wrote: post #3

I'm mildly surprised no one has sued over this yet. And since I keep seeing the mantra that flashback is a trojan. Here's some history: http://mac-antivirus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/histo...

Considering the effort that Apple marketing has made to make it clear that "Macs" and "PCs" are not the same thing, it would be very difficult to win a case, as Macs clearly don't getinfected by "PC" viruses.

Which is not to say that your stement is wrong - it is surprising that nobody has tried to sue, even if they would almost certainly lose...

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#23

Post by fjarlq »

crazygringo wrote: post #6

I'm genuinely curious... are there viruses that spread in OSX? Not trojans or whatnot that require users to click on files they shouldn't, but rather actual viruses that make use of vulnerabilities in OSX to spread from computer to computer, either via Internet or thumb drives or something? In other words, if I always follow responsible practices (never opening files from untrusted sources), has there been any threat…

I think the recent Flashback.K qualifies to some degree. All you had to do is visit an infected webpage and the Java applet would walk onto your system. It would immediately ask for admin privileges, but due to the huge Java hole it would have your user privs automatically.

Since OSX enabled Java by default, and since responsible practices were no defense, this compromised enough Macs that it was proportionally comparable to the Conficker infection on Windows.

http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/trojan-downloader_osx_flashb...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trojan_BackDoor.Flashback

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#24

Post by demallien »

jlouis wrote: post #15
crazygringo wrote: post #6

I'm genuinely curious... are there viruses that spread in OSX? Not trojans or whatnot that require users to click on files they shouldn't, but rather actual viruses that make use of vulnerabilities in OSX to spread from computer to computer, either via Internet or thumb drives or something? In other words, if I always follow responsible practices (never opening files from untrusted sources), has there been any threat…

The real question to ask is not "Has there been?" but "Will there be?" Given that Mac OSX is on the rise on the popularity scale I am almost dead positive we will see a lot of increase in malware for OSX, even remote attacks where the user will be infected even if he acts sensibly. The risk of that happening to you though is fairly low. The risk of clicking something and then getting malware through that is way highe…

But of course going forward the vast majority of Mac users are going to be getting their software through the Mac App Store, and not downloading random programs off the internet. That plus the default GateKeeper config (that prevents unsigned code from being installed) will dramatically reduce the risk of the average user getting hit by trojans on the Mac platform.

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#26

Post by esonderegger »

I love the way the article only quotes two people, both from companies that sell antivirus software. Not that their views should ignored just because of who they work for, but their self-interest was clear.

The first suggests that Apple should be encouraging their users to install antivirus software. My understanding is that Apple's position is the opposite: 3rd party antivirus software on OSX provides so little extra security that it is not recommended. Does anyone know of a 3rd party antivirus application that would have stopped flashback?

The second suggests Apple should do more to support older versions of OSX. I view it as a positive, security-wise, that Apple does such a good job of keeping its OSX users current. Mainly it does this by making new versions affordable, but discontinuing support for old versions is an important part of that.

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#27

Post by mkr-hn »

Apple tried to claim Apple PCs were special, but it didn't remove the single biggest hazard to any claim of security.

PC means personal computer, which means a system owned by millions of people without the technical skill to assess whether or not that attachment (whether it's birthday_card.dmg or birthday_card.exe) really came from grandma.

All PCs are vulnerable to users. I'm glad Apple figured it out a few years sooner than Microsoft did.

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#29

Post by nathan_long »

zdw wrote: post #12

"It doesn't get PC viruses" will, by definition, always be true. It's just not as relevant as it used to be, as Windows is much better in this regard today. If anything, this change is a nod to how the computing industry has moved on - using a Mac is no longer PC virus avoidance, but more "use this because it's great". That said, most of the "virus" writers have turned to spyware and adware, and other scummy malware…

>> "It doesn't get PC viruses" will, by definition, always be true.

Until someone writes a 2-in-1 virus that can infect cross-platform.

Re: Apple Quietly Pulls Claims of Virus Immunity

#30

Post by jiggy2011 »

technoslut wrote: post #19
crazygringo wrote: post #6

I'm genuinely curious... are there viruses that spread in OSX? Not trojans or whatnot that require users to click on files they shouldn't, but rather actual viruses that make use of vulnerabilities in OSX to spread from computer to computer, either via Internet or thumb drives or something? In other words, if I always follow responsible practices (never opening files from untrusted sources), has there been any threat…

The recent major issue was a trojan that I didn't have. >In other words, if I always follow responsible practices (never opening files from untrusted sources), has there been any threat up through now that could compromise my OSX installation? I don't think so but I think you know that otherwise you would not be here. While this story has been posted recently, Apple has removed such articles on their site a few month…

What about professional ID10Ts?
Post reply on HN